Friday – The Fast of Asarah B’Tevet

The Fast begins at 5:46am and ends at 5:00pm

On the 10th of Tevet of the year 3336 from Creation (425 BCE), the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. Thirty months later — on the 17th of Tammuz, 3338 — the city walls were breached, and on the 9th of Av that year, the Holy Temple was destroyed. The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia for 70 years.

Tevet 10 is observed as a day of fasting, mourning and repentance. We refrain from food and drink from daybreak through nightfall, and add the Selichot and other special supplements to our prayers. (More recently, Tevet 10 was chosen to also serve as a “general kaddish day” for the victims of the Holocaust, many of whose day of martyrdom is unknown.)

Click here to read more about Asarah B’Tevet.